This explains the corruption within ALEC, extending from how they pass their model bills, to all of the corporations and legislators involved. It gave us insight into connections between corporate interests turning into bills and the money that they donate to ALEC, which gets into the hands of the legislators involved. It helped us write the introduction and explain the side in disagreement with ALEC’s actions.

This was used for the case study and explains the correlation between a private prison’s corporate interest and a law around immigrants that was passed that benefitted them. They were found to be involved in ALEC, as well as the state legislator who suggested the bill. The law was also very similar to the model bill created in ALEC.

This article extensively explains Citizens United and the different opinions on it, as well as how it all came together. It helped me understand the differences in campaign finance before and after the court decision.

This source has several current stories around campaign finance- one of which I used in the introduction which was the series by Salon and the Center for Investigative Reporting on the issue of federal judges funding the presidential campaign.

This article outlines the top donors to the 2016 presidential race. Cohen goes into how these families are connected, what business they’re in, and how similar they are. This helped me get a sense of who is funding Super PACs. It also gave me insight on who to look into, and what beliefs these top donors hold. This article is a good start into the realm of the people behind the donations.

This article outlines how people are reacting to Super PACs after the 2012 presidential race. It outlines how the 2016 Presidential race might be changed due to factors including citizens values. I used this article to explore how Super PACs are losing value, and why might people be more interested in a self-funded or grass roots candidate.

This article outlines the ramp up of private donations and Super PACs within the last presidential elections. It goes over previous elections, and analyzes what is wrong with the influx of money. I used this citation to gain background on how super pacs affect campaigns, and how they have grown in normality and size over time. It helped me get a sense of why private money is in high demand.

This article outlines the major donors in the 2016 Presidential race, who they donated to, and how much. This helped me in finding candidates to look for and who is spending in the race. I also was able to fact check names and amounts of money with this article.

This source makes a clear statement about the Wilks Brothers and what it means for them to be funding Ted Cruz. This article was helpful in giving insight on the brothers’ ideologies and why they want Cruz to represent them. This article also led me to look into other top donors.

Because I was unable to find out who donates to Priorities USA on their website, I used this article which gives an updated list of top donors. This was useful in finding who to look into and who influences the election through super PACs.

This is Super PAC “Priorities USA” about page. They outline their beliefs, how they started, and who they support. I used it to gain background on the PACs creation and why it is supporting Hillary Clinton.

This source details the comparison between Sanders and Trump. It analyzes how both of the men do not abide by party rules, and how both men are independent. This source was extremely helpful in forming the answer to the question of how campaign finance has changed and how influence affects candidates, or lack of.

This website has the polling day-by-day of each candidate, the website also has the republican candidate national polls. I used this for background on where each candidate stands in regards to their money, to answer the question: are Super PACs helpful?

This is the about page from Bush’s Super PAC Right to Rise USA. It details the views the PAC holds and their plans. This article gave significant insight in to Bush’s and his Super PAC’s beliefs. I used it to understand why companies are donating to the PAC.

This article is a clear timeline of campaign finance reform in the United States. It gives background and analyzes each reform and clearly shows how Citizens United has changed funding in recent years. I used this article to gain background on how campaign finance in regards to presidential elections has changed, and why campaign reform makes such an impact on how candidates raise money.

This article gives background on the WIlks Brothers and why they support Ted Cruz. I used this for fact checking and obtain background on the family. It helped me learn more about who is behind campaign funding and what they stand for.

This article compares Perot and Trump. This was useful for my case study. I learned about how well self-funded men have done in presidential elections before, and what is missing in Perot that Trump has.

This source gives insight into who Pat Robertson is. It also gives a clear example of how Roberston and Trump share similar views. I used this source to compare them, and also see what beliefs Robertson holds.

2016 Presidential candidate donations totals thus far. It breaks down the donations by candidate. The article clearly shows the different types of donations each candidate is using, how much they have and how much they spend, and who has the most support.